[Spike88]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Anyone knows if the cities will be open or closed like in Oblivion?

Nehrim has switched to open cities and my god, even the small villages take
quite a toll on your rig. Afraid to go to the Middlerealm capital, probably fries
my rig instantly.

The 5 major cities are individual maps like Oblivion, while all the minor cities are part of the main map. From what I've read the major cities have parts that are out in the open map.



Here's a quote from someone who played the game at Eurogamer:

• Falkreath is made of similar buildings as found in Riverwood, and has no loading screens for entry. It is surrounded by deep forest.
• The outskirts of Whiterun contains farms, a mill and a brewery, at least. It seems to flow more seamlessly into it's surroundings than any Oblivion city, actually looking like a fortified town.
• Some cities, such as Solitude and Windhelm are walled, others such as Falkreath are not. Those that do seem to have more buildings outside their walls than in Oblivion.

Edit: Falkreath is major enough to appear on older maps that predate the announcement of Skyrim.




Also some lore/politics he gathered from his time with the game. Some of it may be considered Spoiler-ish. Although nothing really containing to the story, just the background lore.

• There are Eight Divines again. Worship of Talos, the God of Man is now banned throughout the empire (!) I could hardly believe my eyes when I read this, is this confirmed elsewhere? The Divines are definitely Eight again now, regardless of the status of Talos.
• Akatosh is confirmed as being worshipped and usually depicted as a dragon The loading screen points out his dragon avatar is one he choose to use to at the end of the Oblivion Crisis
• The Empire only managed to end "The Great War" against the Aldmeri Dominion with the Concordat of White Gold
• Thalmor, agents of the Dominion are found throughout Skyrim. Some have been found with prisoners, one claims that they are merely there in peace, to help Skyrim through this period of transition (Possible foreshadowing of the main quest?)
• Windhelm now has a Dunmer population, who are looked down upon by some of its citizens
• All of the Daedric Princes seem to have returned, including Sheogorath. Some, such as Azura and Meridia are described as being not inherently evil.
• Bosmer are described as heralding from the eastern forests of Valenwood, suggesting they may have been pushed out of the Aldmeri Dominion, or at the very least there is some political divide in Valenwood.
• Each city in Skyrim has a cult of Arkay devoted to the respect of the dead

There are two books that are relatively short(200 pages a piece more or less) that do fill in a chunk of lore between Oblivion and Skyrim. I've yet to read them but from what I've gathered(may be considered a spoiler) Titus Mede lead 1,000 men against the Imperial City and seized it. He made himself Emperor, thus beginning the Mede Dynasty. It has not been confirmed yet, but the Mede Dynasty is probably the current Empire in Skyrim's time frame.

I'm going to read the books within the next 3 days, so I can fill anyone in with the nitty gritty if they're interested.